Description of Willow

The following initial description of Willow is from the original shooting script:

Description of Xander

This description of Xander comes from the original shooting script:

Fighting the setting sun

The sun was starting to set outside in the scene in Welcome to the Hellmouth where Cordelia tells the Scoobies about the dead guy in the locker, so Buffy and Cordelia looked more orange than usual. They had to bounce the light around and focus it on Buffy and Cordelia.

Fumbling Flutie

The following scene between Flutie and Buffy was cut from Welcome to the Hellmouth:

I was in the library

The shooting script for Welcome to the Hellmouth included an alternate exchange in the scene when Xander chases after Buffy when she leaves the Bronze to find Willow:

Kristine’s first scene

Kristine Sutherland revealed a blunder she made during filming of her first scene in Welcome to the Hellmouth:

Marketing Buffy

The WB was originally unsure about the show’s “schizophrenic” combination of horror, drama, and comedy, not because they were opposed to it but because they were uncertain how to market it.

Plagues are fun

The shooting script for Welcome to the Hellmouth had a slightly modified version of the history teacher’s lesson on the Black Plague. The line in italics was not included in the episode:

Previous Slayers trailer

The first time Welcome to the Hellmouth was shown in America, it was preceded by a short trailer that referred to previous slayers such as Lucy Hanover (who now regularly pops up in the Buffy books and comics). This has never been shown again in America and has never been seen overseas.

Principal Flutie’s extended welcome

The shooting script for Welcome to the Hellmouth shows additional dialogue for Buffy and Principal Flutie’s conversation in his office on her first day. These lines take place between where he actually looks at her transcript and begins taping it together

The dialogue then continues with Principal Flutie’s offer that Buffy can call him Bob as shown in the episode.

Reshoots

The scene in Welcome to the Hellmouth in which Giles and Buffy are in the library arguing about Buffy’s reluctance to assume her Slayer duties was actually shot eight months after the rest of the episode. In the original version, Sarah had come across as far too angry and so the scene was completely reshot.

Slut-o-vision

Whilst dressing for the Bronze in Welcome to the Hellmouth, Buffy holds up a black dress and says “Hi! I’m an enormous slut!” The network executives apparently didn’t approve of the use of the word ’slut’. It was only after Joss Whedon explained that it was in the context of Buffy not wanting to appear a slut that they allowed it.

Stepping out, Willow style

After the first episode the WB didn’t like Willow’s style (dowdy) so they requested that she dress differently, and be (confusingly) more like Buffy.

Sunnydale High’s Halls

For the first season, there was only one hall for Sunnydale High school because of a tight budget so they reused the same hall over and over again, redressing it in different ways.

Vampy Angel

An unconfirmed rumour goes that Joss Whedon didn’t decide to make Angel a vampire until after the first couple of episodes were shot.

Charles Martin Smith

Charles Martin Smith was the director of the first episode of the show - Welcome to the Hellmouth (the only episode he directed). He is also an actor. He has been in American Graffiti (as Toad), Herbie Goes Bananas, The Untouchables, Roswell (as Sheriff Wilcox), Deep Impact and Dead Heat.

Eric Balfour

Eric Balfour (who played Jesse) played Gabe in Six Feet Under. He was born in Los Angeles in 1977. He began a career in TV and on film aged 15, when a talent scout cast him as a series regular on the musical show Kids Incorporated. Eric has since been in 24, NYPD Blue, The OC, The West Wing, Dawson’s Creek and Chicago Hope. His movie credits include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, America’s Sweethearts, What Women Want and Can’t Hardly Wait (with Seth Green and Amber Benson). He starred alongside Bianca Lawson (Kendra) in the WB’s Fearless, and is currently in Conviction with J. August Richards, who played Charles Gunn in Angel from the end of season one.
Eric and his girlfriend Francoise own a shop on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood called ‘Lou Lou’, which sells the kind of furniture, art and clothing that Eric likes. Eric is a great animal lover, and he’s especially fond of Pitbull terriers, believing them to be misunderstood by many people. He is involved in a programme called “Pets In The Hood”, which takes rescued Pitbulls (who have been abandoned or abused) and brings them into a juvenile detention centre where the kids there are taught to train them so that the dogs can then be adopted. It’s good for the kids too as they learn to respect animals, as well as receiving training on how to work with animals.

J. Patrick Lawlor

J. Patrick Lawlor played Thomas the vampire in Welcome to the Hellmouth (the first vampire to be staked on the show). He has also been in Pleasantville, in which Marc Blucas (Riley) and Danny Strong (Jonathan) also appeared.

Mark Metcalf

Mark Metcalf, who played the Master, was born in Findlay, Ohio, in 1946. He has had numerous roles in TV and film, most notably in National Lampoon’s Animal House as Niedermayer and as The Maestro in Seinfeld. Mark has also been in Teen Angel, Ally McBeal, Star Trek: Voyager, Melrose Place, Party of Five and Hill Street Blues. He played the father in Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” video.

Natalie Strauss

Natalie played a teacher in Welcome to the Hellmouth, and in Teacher’s Pet. She has also been in Picket Fences, Roseanne, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Gilmore Girls.

Persia White

Persia White played Aura, one of Cordelia’s friends in Welcome to the Hellmouth who discovered the “extreme dead body”. Persia once appeared with Charisma Carpenter in an episode of Malibu Shores called ‘Hotline’ in 1996. She played Aggie in the Angel episode ‘Over the Rainbow‘. Persia appeared in an episode of the TV show Goode Behaviour, which starred Bianca Lawson (Kendra). Persia has played Lynn on UPN’s Girlfriends for six seasons.

Teddy Lane Jnr.

Teddy played the Bouncer at the Bronze in Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest. He has also been in Bringing Down the House, Strong Medicine, V.I.P, and The One.

Aphrodesia

Aphrodesia was the student with Aura who discovered the “extreme dead guy” in the school locker in Welcome to the Hellmouth. She was the girl who asked “what kind of name is Buffy anyway?”

Aura

Aura was a friend of Cordelia who discovered a body in her locker - the first victim Buffy saw at her new school in Welcome to the Hellmouth. The character is heard in the Angel episode ‘RM W/A VU’ when Cordelia talks to her on the phone.

Darla

Darla was a vampire who was sired by the Master and became a member of his brethren. Her time on time on the show Buffy was short but her role was a pivotal one: she was the vampire who sired Angel. Darla and Angel were a pair for a few generations, prowling the world and killing at will. They teamed up with Spike and Drusilla to cause havoc. When Angel was cursed with his soul, Darla was disgusted and left him. Angel killed Darla, but the vampire was brought back as a human by Wolfram and Hart in the spin-off show Angel. Angel tried to help Darla but she was sired again by Drusilla and she and Angel again became enemies. Angel slept with Darla in a fit of rage and she became pregnant with his child. The baby had a soul which began to affect Darla and she realised once she gave birth she would be a danger to her baby. Darla staked herself, which led to the birth of Angel’s son Connor.

Jesse

Jesse was the best friend of Willow and Xander. Jesse had a thing for Cordelia, who constantly rebuffed him. Jesse chatted up Darla in The Bronze, not realising she was a vampire. She took him to the Master, and Jesse was killed and sired by vampires to be used as bait. Jesse was staked by Xander, who never mentioned his friend again.

Master

The Master was an ancient vampire, who celebrated the Old Ones, a race of demons who walked the earth before humanity. These Old Ones were under the Hellmouth and it was the Master’s wish to free them and let them roam the Earth again. The Master sired Darla in the Virginia colony in 1609 and she joined his Order of Aurelius before leaving with Angel. The Master tried to open the Hellmouth in 1937, but a huge earthquake rocked the area, trapping most of the town, and the Master himself. He tried to get free several times and it wasn’t until Giles found a prophecy saying that Buffy would face the Master and die that he managed to free himself. Buffy confronted the Master, who drank her blood and threw her in a pool of water, killing her. The power the Master got from Buffy’s blood freed him and some tentacled monsters, and he headed into fresh air to cause some trouble. Luckily Buffy was given CPR by Xander and she managed to kill the Master by throwing him on some broken wood, staking him.

Thomas

Thomas was the first vampire to be staked by Buffy on the show. Giles urged Buffy to use her slayer intuition to find a vampire in the Bronze but she instead used her common sense, pointing to Thomas, who was dressed in badly aged 80s clothes. Thomas was a member of the Master’s Brethren and met Willow who he offered to take for ice cream. Buffy saved Willow when she was attacked (Welcome to the Hellmouth).

Angel’s cross

Angel gave Buffy a cross necklace when he first met her in Welcome to the Hellmouth. She can be seen wearing the necklace in The Harvest and Prophecy Girl.

British Museum

The Illuminata - the diamond the nerds stole from Sunnydale Museum in Smashed - was on loan from the British Museum, where Giles worked before becoming Buffy’s Watcher. Willow mentioned this in Welcome to the Hellmouth.

Buffy’s choice

The Slayer’s first interesting move when she went to Sunnydale was her choice in friends. On arriving at her new school she was instantly befriended by the most popular girl in school, Cordelia. Instead she chose the shy and nerdy Willow Rosenberg to be her companion. Buffy stated to Giles in Welcome to the Hellmouth that she was sick of being a slayer and wanted to lead a normal life (which in American High Schools, by default, means to be popular). Buffy’s choice of friends is therefore notable as an insight into her character. She saw through Cordelia’s guise immediately and instead chose more genuine and yet ostracised people, a brave move when she wanted to be popular. We saw via flashback in Becoming (Part 1) that Buffy was quite shallow before she was called as a Slayer. Her choice of friends in her new school could be a signal that as much as she hates it, being a Slayer has changed her.

Buffy’s moving door

The front door of Buffy’s house changes in different episodes. In the season one episode Angel, when Buffy is trying to close her front door on The Three, you can see that the front door opens on Buffy’s right. In the season two episodes Inca Mummy Girl and Halloween, we see that Buffy’s door now opens on her left.
Later in season two, when Cordelia talks to Norman Pfister in Buffy’s hall in What’s My Line? (Part 2), you can see that the door handle of Buffy’s front door is on the left. But when Xander let Cordelia in the house in the previous episode (What’s My Line? (Part 1))the handle was on the right!

Carpe Diem

Buffy’s motto, which means “seize the day”. In Welcome to the Hellmouth, Buffy tells Willow “seize the moment, because tomorrow you might be dead.” In Surprise, Willow reminded Buffy about “Carpe diem” in their chat about whether Buffy should sleep with Angel. And look what happened then.

Dreams can come true

All of the visions in Buffy’s first prophetic dream in Welcome to the Hellmouth are clips from later episodes from the first season. Most of the clips are from Welcome to the Hellmouth and Prophecy Girl.

Kill them all

In Welcome to the Hellmouth, Angel says about vampires to Buffy, “You want to kill them. You want to kill them all.” In the season two episode When She Was Bad, Angel asks Buffy how she is going to distract the vampires to which she responds, “I’m gonna kill them all.”

Kill to live in L.A.

Cordelia said to Buffy the first time she met her that she’d “kill to live in L.A.” Her wish was fulfilled (and she only had to kill a couple of vampires!) when Cordelia left Sunnydale after graduation to move to Los Angeles.

Prophecy lady

Joyce’s parting words to Buffy when she dropped her off at her new school in Welcome to the Hellmouth were “try not to get kicked out”. Buffy was, of course, expelled in season two’s Becoming (Part 2).

Thought you’d be taller

When Angel first met Buffy in Welcome to the Hellmouth, he said that he thought she’d be taller, implying that he’d never seen her before. In Becoming (Part 1), we saw a flashback of Angel watching Buffy when she was chosen as a Slayer in LA. Angel later mentioned the sighting to Buffy in the episode Helpless. I’m not including this as a ‘goof’ as a lot of sites have, as the show had just started, and Joss hadn’t decided how Buffy and Angel’s relationship would turn out yet.
It’s possible that Angel’s comment was an in-joke directed at those who saw the movie, as Kristy Swanson, who played Buffy in the movie, is 5′7″ and Sarah Michelle Gellar is 5′3″.

Master Source

In Welcome to the Hellmouth, No Heroes from the Master Source music library can be heard as Joyce drives Buffy to school.

Sprung Monkey

The first ever band to play at the Bronze was Sprung Monkey in Welcome to the Hellmouth. They play “Things Are Changing” from their album Swirl as Buffy leaves the Bronze looking for Willow, and “Believe”, from the same album, as Buffy enters the Bronze for the first time. They also play “Swirl” in the Bronze. We hear their song “Saturated” (from the album Swirl) as Buffy is choosing an outfit.
Their song “Right My Wrong” (again from Swirl) can be heard in The Harvest as Buffy attempts to leave the school, and “Reluctant Man” (Swirl) can be heard in The Pack when the bullies enter The Bronze.

The Slayer

The Slayer is “one girl in all the world born with the strength and skill to hunt vampires” (and all other evil). When one Slayer dies, another is chosen to take her place. A Watcher is assigned to each Slayer, to help, advise and train her. The Slayer is also called The Chosen One. Because of the nature of their work, Slayers traditionally do not live very long. Slayers seen on the show include Buffy Summers, Kendra, Faith, the First Slayer and Nikki Wood.

Bovril

In Welcome to the Hellmouth, Giles says, “I’d much prefer to be home with a cup of Bovril and a good book.” Bovril is the name of a thick yeast extract, which, when mixed with hot water, make a hot drink. It was formerly a beef extract and is as yicky as it sounds.

DeBarge

In Welcome to the Hellmouth, Buffy tells Thomas the vampire that he looks like DeBarge. She’s referring to the pop group consisting of five siblings who had a hit with ‘Rhythm of the Night’ in 1985.

Department stores

In Welcome to the Hellmouth, Cordelia tells Willow she’s seen the “softer side of Sears”, which is a department store. Buffy later says that Sunnydale is “two hours on the freeway from Neiman-Marcus.” Neiman-Marcus is an upscale department store, (considered to be better than Sears!).

Epstein-Barr

Cordelia says to her friends in the Bronze in Welcome to the Hellmouth, “My mom doesn’t even get out of bed anymore. And the doctor says it’s Epstein-Barr. I’m like, pleeease! It’s chronic hepatitis, or at least chronic fatigue syndrome. I mean, nobody cool has Epstein-Barr anymore.” Epstein-Barr is a common virus which affects most people sometime during their lives.

James Spader and John Tesh

Cordelia takes out a questionnaire on Buffy in Welcome to the Hellmouth, testing her “coolness”. She asks her about James Spader (80’s brat pack movie star who featured in Pretty in Pink, Sex, Lies and Videotape, Crash and The Secretary) and John Tesh (a former TV host and musician).

Watchtower

Whilst she is picking out what to wear to go to the Bronze in Welcome to the Hellmouth, Buffy holds up a flowery dress saying, “Hello, would you like a copy of the Watchtower?” which is a reference to the Jehovah’s Witness magazine.
In Calvalry, Lilah says, “Don’t go Watchtower on me Saint Cordelia, I don’t think I could stomach it.”

Seen at 02.05 minutes:

In the opening sequence, Darla’s top button on her shirt is undone but when she vamps up, the shirt is closed.

Seen at 07.02 minutes:

When Buffy drops her purse on the floor, there’s a girl in a striped skirt in the background walking down the hall. In the next shot (where we see Xander) the same girl is walking down the hall but in the opposite direction.

Seen at 15.27 minutes:

Darla’s bitemarks on the dead boy run horizontally. It would be impossible for Darla to have positioned her head to get bitemarks like this.

Seen at 17.41 minutes:

When Buffy and Giles are arguing about Buffy being the Slayer, Giles hands her some books. When he gives them to her the spines of the books are facing one way and when she gives them back to him they are facing the other way. They alternate like that a few times before they are finally put down.

Seen at 25.11 minutes:

In The Bronze, there is a close-up of the drummer playing. The beat in the song and the drummers hands are out of synch.

Seen at 25.54 minutes:

When Willow and Buffy are talking in the Bronze, Buffy has a drink with a straw and some cherries. In the shots where we see Willow, Buffy is sometimes eating a cherry or drinking from the straw, but in quick cuts to Buffy’s face, she’s not. This occurs a few times in this scene.

Seen at 38.21 minutes:

Darla doesn’t seem to know what a Slayer is but we know from future Buffy and Angel episodes (such as Fool For Love) that she does. She should have known straight away that Buffy is the Slayer.